Page:Bird Haunts and Nature Memories - Thomas Coward (Warne, 1922).pdf/266

204 the pine marten, badger, and otter are threatened with extinction; the polecat and wild cat have within our time followed the wolf and bear. The raven once nested in our midst, but now only exists in the wilds; the lesser fry have suffered, too, though in a smaller degree. It was woe to many creatures when gunpowder came into general use, it was the end when the lethal weapon was "improved."

When engaged in warfare against the smaller creatures, especially those which are in reality his parasites, man usually fails to destroy, though he may succeed in keeping them in check by materially reducing numbers. But when he pits his science and cunning against the less developed intelligence of the larger forms, he can entirely wipe a species out, and often does this in his greed to secure wealth in advance of his human competitors. Thus the rat, sparrow, house-fly, and louse defy his efforts, and until his whole moral outlook changes, for sanitation is a moral question, his cleverest devices will fail to utterly check their ravages. Even then it is doubtful if he will ever destroy the fly and mosquito, though he may render their attacks innocuous. The rat, indeed, persistently following man, has often undone his best work. Its arrival on Lord Howe Island has resulted in the ruin of that successful Australian bird reserve.

With larger and less numerous animals the fight is more one-sided, for they are not numerous because he is numerous. How effectually he can destroy is shown by the extinction of the vast hordes of passenger pigeons, the Eskimo curlew, the great auk, and many of the Australian parrots. But we need not go beyond the limits of our own land for examples. It has often been argued that drainage of marshes or cultivation of land explains